KLRE C6

Chapter 6

She found it difficult to understand what she had just heard. The idea that she should marry him but love Raon instead was inherently contradictory. It sounded almost as if—

“I’ll permit it. When I ascend the throne, I will officially recognize the two of you as a married couple. So, for now, marry me.”

Chris did not want to marry Versha either. In fact, he did not wish to marry anyone at all. However, he had no authority to overturn this marriage. The only thing his father had granted him the right to decide was the matter concerning Stella.

The Emperor hoped that, even in this way, Chris’s heart might be eased. He believed that Chris would return to his former self. Perhaps it was also guilt—guilt over failing to protect Stella in her final moments.

But what had already happened could not be undone. Chris would never be able to return to the way he once was.

“I’ll speak to Raon as well.”

Since this was something that could not be reversed anyway, he intended to help this pitiful pair of lovers. He had lost both the one he loved and his heart, but they still had each other. At the very least, their love had to be protected.

Leaving only those words behind, Chris exited the room.

As soon as Raon entered the room, Chris spoke as if he had been waiting.

“I hear the wedding will proceed as planned.”

There was alcohol set before him. Judging by the amount already gone, he had been drinking quite a lot. Chris held out a glass.

“Have a drink.”

He thought of Raon as a man just as pitiable as himself. Without even having the time to mourn Stella’s death, he was being forced into a wedding. Everything had already been prepared—there was no need to find a bride.

“Have you greeted Versha?”

Instead of answering, Raon frowned. Chris hadn’t expected a reply, so he paid it no mind.

“Still, you’re alive, aren’t you?”

Lovers who part ways suffer, of course. But he believed it was better than never being able to see each other again, as in his own case. At least they still had a chance—whether it be running away or receiving someone’s help. To Chris, the fact that they were alive under the same sky mattered most.

“If Stella were still alive, none of this would have happened. Isn’t that right?”

Chris downed the drink he had been holding in a single gulp and muttered. Raon frowned again, but for a different reason this time.

“I heard you issued an unreasonable order.”

There was anger in Raon’s voice as he spoke to Chris. But Chris, who was sipping his drink, pretended not to hear.

“There was no problem with the charity event. You know that yourself. Then why would you give such an order…?”

“Then whose fault is it?”

Raon did not answer. He knew his answer would hold no meaning for Chris. Knowing how deeply he had loved Stella, Raon tried to understand him.

But this was wrong. Those children had done nothing wrong. The charity event was something the imperial family had organized to present to the citizens, and all preparations had been handled by them. If blame were to be assigned, it should fall upon the imperial household—the ones who planned the event.

“I punished the attendant who failed to protect her. I punished the imperial physician who failed to identify her illness. I punished the maids who failed to notice her condition in advance.”

Chris’s voice gradually rose.

“Everyone who failed to properly attend to Stella has been punished! So isn’t it only right to punish those who failed to properly carry out the only event of that day as well?!”

His face flushed red, veins bulging in his neck, as if he were coughing up blood.

“Then what about me, who was there that day? What about Versha? You know better than anyone—we were closest to her.”

Raon spoke calmly, stating the facts. By that logic, there was no one without fault.

“And who, then, is to punish Your Highness, who never left her side that entire day?”

All the arrows of punishment Chris spoke of might ultimately be aimed at himself.

Yet even knowing that, he turned away from the truth, pouring his anger onto others instead—through a method that would never extinguish his rage, no matter how long he continued.

“Release them.”

Raon had to correct what was wrong. Watching someone close to him fall apart and doing nothing, lost in personal grief—that too was a sin.

“At least you should remain with Versha forever.”

At those sudden words, the calm mask Raon had been maintaining began to crack.

“I’m not marrying Versha because I want to either. But it can’t be helped—it’s because of that damned law.”

Chris clenched the glass in his hand and poured the alcohol straight into his mouth.

“Once I become Emperor, I’ll change that law. Just endure it until then.”

To Raon, Chris’s words were sweet—like sugar. But they were also deception.

“…No.”

“What?”

“I cannot break a law that has existed since the founding of the Empire.”

It would be a lie to say he was not shaken. But it was a law built over a long time—one that high-ranking nobles used to maintain their power. And now, after enjoying that power, to change it at will?

It was hypocrisy.

“This is a letter Lady Kina of the Senet Viscount’s family asked me to deliver to Your Highness.”

Stopping himself from thinking further, Raon handed over Kina’s letter. It was a clear act of avoidance.

“I hope there will be no more innocent deaths.”

“You’re saying a letter like this matters more than your love?”

“…You are the one who will become Emperor. If you go any further, you will surely regret it someday.”

After giving a formal bow, Raon turned to leave the room. At that moment, a glass flew toward the door and shattered with a sharp crash.

“Don’t let your pride get in the way—take what’s offered to you.”

Chris barked in a low, angry voice.

He was furious at the foolishness of a man who rejected a love he could still reach—when Chris himself could no longer meet the one he longed for, no matter how much he wished to.

Raon, who had turned halfway back, met Chris’s eyes for a few seconds before leaving without another word. Even after Raon was gone, Chris stood there, staring at the door.

‘It may spread to you, Your Highness.’

Stella’s lips had been dry, her face pale as she said those words.

‘I’ll recover soon and come to see you first.’

She had pulled her hand away from Chris’s grasp and pushed lightly against his shoulder to meet his gaze. Though she had no strength, Chris was easily pushed back. Until the door closed, Stella—her face deathly pale—smiled at him.

“…I thought… I thought we would meet again…”

He lifted the bottle and drank deeply before slamming it down with a loud bang.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

The lingering softness in his eyes had already disappeared.